Mnemonic
You peer into a well and let a single drop of broth fall from above. It splashes into a massive bowl of rice sitting at the bottom. The well IS the bowl — deep, round, and brimming with donburi, each topping dropped in from above.
Additional thoughts
The kanji 丼 literally looks like the well radical 井 with a drop 丶 falling into it. A donburi bowl is deep like a well, and ingredients are dropped in on top of rice. The visual of dropping something into a well perfectly mirrors how toppings land in the bowl.Quick recall
A drop falls into a well — at the bottom sits a steaming bowl of rice.Details
The keyword for 丼 is bowl. This kanji depicts a large, deep dish used for serving food, particularly associated with Japanese rice bowl dishes. It visually suggests an object dropping into a well or container, evoking the image of ingredients being placed into a deep, round vessel. In Japanese cuisine, it specifically refers to the type of oversized bowl used for donburi dishes, where toppings are served over a generous bed of rice.
- On'yomi
- とん、たん、しょう、せい
- Kun'yomi
- どんぶり